Set up autoscale for applications

Article
08/01/2022
2 minutes to read

Note

Azure Spring Apps is the new name for the Azure Spring Cloud service. Although the service has a new name, you'll see the old name in some places for a while as we work to update assets such as screenshots, videos, and diagrams.

This article applies to: ✔️ Java ✔️ C#

This article applies to: ✔️ Basic/Standard tier ✔️ Enterprise tier

This article describes how to set up Autoscale settings for your applications using the Microsoft Azure portal or the Azure CLI.

Autoscale is a built-in feature of Azure Spring Apps that helps applications perform their best when demand changes. Azure Spring Apps supports scale-out and scale-in, which includes modifying the number of app instances and load balancing.

Prerequisites

To follow these procedures, you need:

An Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.
A deployed Azure Spring Apps service instance. Follow the quickstart on deploying an app via the Azure CLI to get started.
At least one application already created in your service instance.

Navigate to the Autoscale page in the Azure portal

Sign in to the Azure portal.
Go to the Azure Spring Apps Overview page.
Select the resource group that contains your service.
Select the Apps tab under Settings in the menu on the left navigation pane.
Select the application for which you want to set up Autoscale. In this example, select the application named demo. You should then see the application's Overview page.
Go to the Scale out tab under Settings in the menu on the left navigation pane.
Select the deployment you want to set up Autoscale. The options for Autoscale are described in the following section.

Set up Autoscale settings for your application in the Azure portal

There are two options for Autoscale demand management:

Manual scale: Maintains a fixed instance count. In the Standard tier, you can scale out to a maximum of 500 instances. This value changes the number of separate running instances of the application.
Custom autoscale: Scales on any schedule, based on any metrics.

In the Azure portal, choose how you want to scale. The following figure shows the Custom autoscale option and mode settings.

Screenshot of Azure portal showing the **Autoscale setting** page with the **Custom autoscale** option highlighted.

Set up Autoscale settings for your application in Azure CLI

You can also set Autoscale modes using the Azure CLI. The following commands create an Autoscale setting and an Autoscale rule.

Create Autoscale setting:

az monitor autoscale create \
     --resource-group demo-rg \
     --name demo-setting \
     --resource /subscriptions/ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff/resourcegroups/demo-rg/providers/Microsoft.AppPlatform/Spring/autoscale/apps/demo/deployments/default \
     --min-count 1 \
     --max-count 5 \
     --count 1

Create Autoscale rule:

az monitor autoscale rule create \
     --resource-group demo-rg \
     --autoscale-name demo-setting \
     --scale out 1 \
     --cooldown 1 \
     --condition "tomcat.global.request.total.count > 100 avg 1m where AppName == demo and Deployment == default"

For information on the available metrics, see the User metrics options section of Metrics for Azure Spring Apps.

Upgrade to the Standard tier

If you're on the Basic tier and constrained by one or more of these limits, you can upgrade to the Standard tier. To upgrade, go to the Pricing tier menu by first selecting the Standard tier column and then selecting the Upgrade button.